Meet our 2017 Summer Fellows!

Apply for our Summer 2019 Fellowship

“Participating in the FirstGEN Fellowship … was the best choice I could have made … This has truly been a refreshing experience that has rejuvenated my passion for social justice and propelled forward my professional career.” – Tania Chairez, 2013 Inaugural Fellow

FirstGEN Welcomes New Partner

On Flying, FirstGEN, and being Filipino, by 2014 Fellow Nirvana Gisle Felix

2014 Summer Reflection by Juan Rangel

“Finding other people who are as interested and dedicated to social justice and serving underprivileged communities in this county as I am was a huge blessing beyond comparison.”

2014 FirstGEN Fellows Premiere Short Film

iCore Networks Joins Team As Corporate Sponsor

“We have been dedicated to giving back to our community and the industry since day one, and becoming a key sponsor of the FirstGEN Fellows program allows us to continue this important value.” – Chuck Canton, Vice President of Operations, iCore Networks

Founder & Program Lead

Founding Partner Organization

Founding Partner Organization

FirstGEN Fellows is a ten-week summer program in the D.C. area for undergraduate students who are the first in their immediate families to attend an institution of higher education, and who are passionate about pursuing careers in social justice. Each fellow receives up to a $3,000 Dollar stipend. Our mission is to identify, support and advance emerging first generation social justice leaders.
The fellowship is a collaborative program by Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and D.C. Office of the National Immigration Law Center, with the Lawyers’ Committee serving as program lead.

by Ester Ouli Kim, The Seattle Globalist, on Jun 8, 2018. Persephone Angeli’s story as a first-generation University of Washington student starts with her mother.“It’s always been her dream to get her bachelor’s and become a teacher,” Angeli said.Angeli’s mom came to the United States from El Salvador. Her dad was born in Hawaii. Neither…

By Troy Markowitz, at Forbes. on August 8, 2017. Follow on Twitter. iStock On March 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln remarked, “When one starts poor, as most do in the race of life, free society is such that he knows he can better his condition; he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor, for his whole…

by Kori Crockett, Brookings, on October 26, 2017, Follow Kori Cockett on Twitter The seriousness of low college graduation rates among first-generation and low-income college students cannot be overstated. Today, only 9 percent of students from low-income families earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24, compared to 77 percent of students from high-income families. Even more troubling, there has…